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Roo said
Thanks for keeping us updated Brendan, really appreciate your reports. Not only was you speed impressive but the number of runs you did on the canal was insane. How much lead did you carry when you did the 50 knot run, also what equipment did you use and what were the conditions like? What GPS were you using and was there much difference between them and Manfred's unit? Thank you dad for the videos, they were very well done and great to watch.
Roo
Yeah could have pushed to 200 runs, but at one stage, you need to preserve yourself, and do quality and not quantity.
The first few days were all about quantity. I needed to learn every inch of the canal, and get familiar with it, like if it was my back garden.
The 2 strong days, I carried the max I had with me so 12kg. Epic to carry weight in your luggage, got stopped on the return trip as it showed a black mass in the luggage, so had to go through custom security etc... to let the luggage pass security.
Most guys either hide it somewhere in the sand there at luderitz or ask friends to keep then in Cape Town.
Until I did 49 I was on the av production board 40. Then after that I swap to the Av38 proto (same look at production) that was made by Aurelio in 2019. Herv? the french distributor found it for me, so was happy to have the 38 there.
The first 250m 300m were really really flat, then the last bit could be a bit choppy based on the wind direction. Keep in mind it is choppy anyway, going down 140deg from the wind makes any place choppy with rolling chop. If you want it flat, we should race in a bit more square condition but then, I ll not be doing those speed. Square = heavy guys, is a direct compensation of the power of the sail. Going super downwind, is "less" sensible to the mass of the riders.
I used 5m sail and 19cm asy chopper fin. Tried different brand, but the chopper was the one helping put the nose down which I needed in the gusts.
I think if you compare speed to wind ratio, and we discussed it a lot with my dad, the speed are higher in medium condition 30 to 50kts compare to blasty condition 50kts+ because then the water is choppy and slowing you down.
If we could get super flat water, blasting condition like the 2x 1hour we had, and no hole, then I would guess Antoine and Gunnar will have been easily on the 54 55 mark, and for myself potentially 52 53...
Again just my opinion, not an expert, just doing what I can with my weight and size... but just thinking, it could be easier to make the gear progress for less windy condition and see directly the benefits.
I used the manfred ones obviously (on the front arm always as it is his requirement), and on the back arm, the esp-gps from Jan /Andres and a motion screen that Julien kindly fixed for me before leaving to Luderitz.
Between the 2 esp-gps basically no difference or 0.01.
Between the motion and the esp-gps could find up to 0.1 max.
Between them all and manfred, same up to 0.1 max.
Keep in mind Manfred gps is taking measurement in the 500m defined by the cameras, while the others are taking your best 500m that can happen a few meters before or after the camera.
Between the camera and gps, max 0.1 in my case. Even one run at 49 was higher on the camera than on the gps.
So give or take all devices are extremely reliable with the technology they use.
All brands worked very well there, and I want to thank Julien, Andres and Jan for making me one device for Luderitz.
Then it s all about what design you like more, the practicality of a button push versus a magnet start... But once it s on your arm they re all nice and easy. Downloading track is very good on the 3 devices.

Manfred's one are as far as I know (dad asked him) not for sale and exclusively dedicated to the WSSRC records attempts.